82nd Giro di Toscana - 1.1

Italy, May 3, 2009

Petacchi scores six days before Giro

Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi put another win into his books one week prior to his season objective at the Giro d'Italia. The Team LPR Brakes rider won the Giro di Toscana Sunday in Sansepolcro, Italy, over Manuel Belletti (Diquigiovanni) and Ruggero Marzoli (Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo).

"It is a great pleasure to get a win only a few days before the Corsa Rosa. This year it will be a great Giro and we will have a great team," he said to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The win came at the end of a 194-kilometre race that featured an early escape of 12 with Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) and Filippo Simeoni (Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Docce). LPR Brakes took the race under control for the 26-kilometre closing circuit to give Petacchi his seventh win of the season.

"It was a great win and it was not easy, we pulled hard through the last climb, even if that did not work out in Larciano [the day before]."

The team effort was a test for the first of the Giro d'Italia sprint stages: stages two (Trieste) and three (Valdobbiadene). Petacchi will need to have all eight of his LPR men in order if he can beat the strongest sprinter in the peloton, Mark Cavendish – "He's a cannibal."

The team of Petacchi and general classification leader Danilo Di Luca will be without Lorenzo Bernucci, who crashed in training Thursday. Team Manager Fabio Bordinali said that they will be ready, and can count on second-year professional Matteo Montaguti. (GB)